The Stone Maiden
by Apollo Wings
Summary: Gift-fic for Reaver. H for being my 100th reviewer on The Daughter of the Mountain. A Shale-centric fic on friendship, Denerim, shoes and squishing. Contains F!Surana/Leliana reference and spoilers for the endgame.


Author note: **Reaver. H** won a fic from me for being the 100th reviewer on my fic The Daughter of the Mountain.

And they requested a Shale-centric fic on her first visit to Denerim. I got carried away though...

* * *

The golem stood seven feet tall, bedecked in green crystals on her forearms and purple ones from shoulder to chiselled waist. I was quite slimming, she had been told so. She adored them and glittered from ear to ear so to speak. Very nice were these crystals and the Warden indulged her whenever such lovely bounties were found.

Shayle of House Cadash, once a woman, a dwarf - of all the squishy creatures Shayle had once been... SHE, how odd was that? She was a dwarf.

The golem's eyes glowed with the power of the lyrium that had made her into a golem itself, sweeping the gates of the city ahead the Warden group she had become... friends? Friends with. Yes, she'd become friends of a sort with the odd elf in a dress.

The elf was another mage - like the one that had owned her before the elf had come along, squishy, requiring sleep and sometimes sleeping with the sister, a human, although the noises made did not indicate mush sleeping was happening.

They were apparently going into the city to dispose of a usurper on the throne. The squishy elf that lead them had been on lots of adventures before it had met Shayle.

The sister one often liked to tell those stories, how the squishy mage elf had cured some sort of disease that turned others of it's kind into wolves and slew a deluded boy that had become an abomination.

Then it had found some ashes of a dead woman to cure an ill man.

Then it had found Shayle in that village - Honnleath.

The squishy mage elf had taken Shayle to the tower it had come from, and Shayle had seen other mages, locked up and turning to blood magic.

Shayle didn't have blood to work that magic on and the squishy elf had taken Shayle out of a nightmare where she had been trapped in Honnleath again. Shayle almost called it but it's name then. Neria.

Of course, Shayle wouldn't give it the satisfaction.

Then they'd travelled far north to the home of the dwarves and done some more squishing to help get one of them, apparently the youngest of three brothers onto the throne there. Into the deep roads they had gone, Shayle had memories of that darkness before the vile Wilhelm had found her.

Just darkness, nothing before.

They had all gone down there, the tunnels covered in oily black and red spume that looked like blood and grease, squishing darkspawn to get the Anvil of the Void.

And Shayle had met Paragon Caridin. Her maker, the one who placed the body of Shayle the dwarf into the stone body she wore now, poured lyrium into her eyes until she was infused into the body and under control of a control rod.

It had destroyed the Anvil for Paragon Caridin. But not before Caridin told Shayle of her origins, accompanied them to Orzammar again to give word for the dwarven throne.

They had seen the thaig Shayle was of, making her memories seem all that clearer. Caridin had been too long of this world though and had dropped into the lava floes, ending his life.

But Shayle... Shayle continued and that was the first time she had called the Warden, the squishy mage elf by her name, I Neria. The elf had smiled at that, said it would help her regain her life as a dwarf if she wished it, and if not... it would help the sister one in searching for some red shoes for her.

If Shayle could have smiled she would have.

The gates allowed them entrance into the city of Denerim and the golem, if it had squishy eyes, might have had them pop out of it's sockets. It was large, so large that not all of it could be viewed at once surely?

This was where the sister and it's Warden, it's squishy elf would find her some shoes. They liked their shoes. The golem followed after the sister one, the squishy elf that everyone called 'The Warden' and occasionally 'Neria' or 'it', the elderly mage and the hound.

The painted elf, the swamp witch, the qunari and the other Warden were at the camp they had erected, looking after the drunken dwarf who had been blundering about, hungover. Why one would want to imbibe so much fluids that made it so noxious and stumble so was perplexing.

The sister - it had called this a 'girls outing' - because they were all of the feminine persuasion in this group. Shayle had ignored that comment, watching for the pigeons that circled in the skies. Vile creatures, just as vile as that Wilhelm of the shrill voice and control rod. She had taken great delight to hear she may have squished his head.

"Shayle, why do you persist in calling me the 'elder mage'." The elder mage asked, obviously pointed to her.

"Clearly because it is purple, and a hound." Shayle remarked dryly.

"I have a name." The elder mage sighed, before gesturing at their group. "We all do. Even though Morrigan even though you call her 'swamp witch', maybe she'd prefer being referred to by her name."

"I have no doubt that is so." Shayle shrugged, her crystals catching and glittering in the light. Oh she liked that. She shrugged for the joy of it, watching the fractured lights on the dirty cobbles as they continued through the streets. Their warden liked it's maps, read them voraciously to know where they should go. It seemed to work for it.

"Then you simply wish to be perverse? Surely you are better than that." The elder mage sighed quite dramatically a frown pulling at it's wrinkled lips.

"I have found that I am allowed precious few amusements. Since so many prefer to call me 'golem', I enjoy referring to them in a similar fashion." Shayle shrugged again, enjoying the purple and green lights that flickered on the cobbles. That was one of the amusements she liked to have.

Another dramatic sigh from the elder mage. "Oh, very well. But could you at least use a different adjective? I do not wish my age to be my defining characteristic." It tutted in a scolding matter.

"As the fussy mage desires." Shayle snarked. Oh she enjoyed being sarcastic, another pleasure she could have in this existence. Shayle wondered if she enjoyed it so much when she was squishy and dwarven. Or when she was unable to speak, being sarcastic in her head.

"Oh, I give up." Another sigh from the fussy elder mage.

The squishy elf mage held it's hand up to halt them as they entered an area with coloured bunting and many more humans hawking wares at passers by. One of them looked derisively at it and muttered something about 'knife-ears', for some reason the squishy elf mage didn't like it but it's 'lover' put a hand on it's shoulder to seemingly soothe it.

"Neria, it would do no good to set ignorant men on fire." The sister pecked the squishy elf mage on the cheek and it blushed. Why did they have such a strange response - blood flowing to the cheeks?

"I know Leli, I hate it though. Better than spellbind though. You wouldn't think I've been to the Void and back trying to fix this country." It slumped into it's shoulders. "I've never been to the city though... I think I smell roasting chicken. Do you think we have time to get a drumstick before we head to Eamon's estate?"

"I'm sure we have time dear heart." The sister grinned. "Wynne, would you like some?"

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly." The elder mage shook it's head. "You too go any enjoy yourselves, I'll just sit here with Shayle and watch the fountain and playing children."

"Come on then Greagoir, we're getting some chicken." The squishy elf mage patted it's thigh and the hound loped after it and the sister, disappearing into the crowds.

Shayle wondered what chicken tasted like. She had heard the other blond Warden say it's stew tasted 'just like chicken' once when it had cooked. Even though Shayle didn't eat she was thankful of that because of the way everyone else seemed to shun it's cooking. But what did chicken taste of? She knew it was a bird, a vile horrid thing and why anyone would consume their flesh was disgusting but oddly poetic in the fact they were dead.

Did one have to be alive again to taste such things? "So what do you think of the city Shayle?"

The elder mage was sitting on a low wooden bench, it's staff rested between it's legs. "A mass of flesh crawling over the entire landscape like a river of slugs. That's my definition of a city." Shayle responded plainly, feeling very pleased at her definition. From what the golem could see that was what this was.

Shayle's mind wandered in the silence back to tasting things, maybe not chicken but things such as the cheese the other Warden seemed to enjoy so much that it guarded it from the hound. "I have a question it may be able to answer, elder mage."

The elder mage looked up at her, an eyebrow raised. "Must it _always_ be 'elder mage?' I'm not a wizened old crone just yet." It snorted a breath from it's nose.

"Would it prefer 'mage well past it's prime, don't mind the sagging bits?'" Shayle countered. Silence ensued for a while as the 'mage well past it's prime, don't mind the sagging bits' stared out at the coloured buntings and looked pensive.

"You have an odd way of requesting answers to your questions." It finally spoke. Shayle mulled it over a while before answering that. There were squishy creatures known as abominations in the tower, the elder mage was one of them... technically.

"I am curious about the abominations of the tower. Is it possible for such a creature to become human again?"

"Yes, it is simply... very difficult." The elder mage turned it's gaze to Shayle. "It requires travel into the Fade."

So it was possible. "And? Is the mage the same afterwards as the mage was before?" Perhaps it could mean that she could become a dwarf again, they seemed less squishy than most of the creatures she encountered. Then she could taste what was so wonderful about the disgusting sounding chicken and other things.

"No, I... have never met such a person, but no. They are changed. Forever." Shayle huffed at that and turned her lyrium eyes in what would have been a roll. The elder mage was one.

They remained silent until the sister and squishy elf returned with the hound, licking fingers and muzzle respectively. "Did it enjoy consuming the flesh of birds?"

"Very muchly." The squishy elf grinned. "Oh, and we found a cobbler that wants to make you some sandals... the red ones we talked about. Leli and I are going to get matching heels for Alistair's coronation too, he said he'd do them half price for the honour of making the first golem shoes!"

Shayle grinned as much was possible.

* * *

Perhaps this wasn't so bad to be in this city. The cobbler had gushed and pandered relentlessly over her feet, drawing up pictures with charcoal, wax crayons and pencil what her shoes would look like while the sister and squishy elf were perusing the selection of shoes available, testing the different sizes and differing heights of heel. They preferred this green one with what they called a 'kitten heel' and they had bows on them in yellow with a crystal of blue in the middle.

Shayle liked the crystal and the cobbler noticed, amending it's designs to have red crystals on the straps of the sandals.

Even the elder mage seemed to be enjoying the time in the cobbler's shop, finding some 'lovely sensible loafers' - which both the squishy elf and sister had pursed their lips at, giggling.

* * *

Shayle decided she did not like the city after all if the people in it were so horrible. They had met another one of the squishy creatures, clad in metal so it did not seem so squishy - it had called it 'Loghain' and another squishy one in metal called the squishy elf 'churl'. That didn't sit right with Shayle.

It was Shayle's place to make sure it didn't get big-headed over the feats it did. Not the squishy woman in metal's job.

They had later gone onto squish the other one with this 'Loghain' and metal woman called 'Howe' that had been undesirable too. The Warden had been captured and imprisoned in one 'Fort Drakon' for that. The sister, painted elf, qunari, drunken dwarf, elder mage, swamp witch, herself and the other Warden went to rescue it, pretending Shayle was a gift for the captain of the guards there and squishing them until they reached it's cage. They found it's cage empty and returned confused to the estate of 'Arl Eamon' to find it looking for them.

Then they went into the home of the elves of Denerim.

Shayle definitely did not like the city. It was squalid, and if her shoes had been cobbled yet they would have gotten filthy.

They squished ones that were making the elves slaves and got together for this landsmeet to stop 'Loghain' from being the usurper on the throne. Shayle did not like the idea of slavery, it was like the control rod and herself, it was a horrid fate to have.

They fought comrades of the painted elf on the way, and the painted elf had been upset about this but carried on following the squishy elf, even making a comment about it's behind.

* * *

Shayle was proud of the not-so-squishy elf. It had fought the metal clad man and stuck him down, placing it's daughter and the other Warden on the throne. It had then walked back to the estate and spoke with it's lover about the shoes again. Shayle joined in and they decided together that they would wear all of their new shoes for the coronation.

Shayle felt like she belonged somewhere again and it was nice. She called it but it's name again, telling it not to get big-headed about such things.

* * *

Shayle helped the not-so-squishy elf kill the Archdemon. It turned out it did not squish any of them, which was good. They wore their shoes to the coronation.

Shayle was pleased the cobbler hadn't been squished either. It wasn't so vile and repulsive a creature now it had gifted the red sandals with crystals to the golem.

The not-so-squishy elf and the sister wore their matching shoes and they both wore dresses, they gave Shayle some red crystals to match her shoes.

Shayle did not like Denerim but when she was with her friends it didn't matter where she went. She liked them.


End file.
